Make holding-tank chemistry work in your favor Iss...
March 12, 2026
Applying patches with a sticky sealant is as effective as sewing Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 Modern cloths make sails infinitely trouble-free when compared with the state of things in the bad old days. B...
Reverse the ravages of age or accidents Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 Deck hatches are great for the light and air flow they allow below, and it’s nice to see through them. Unfortunately, subjected to ultr...
Adding a deck hatch transformed the head compartment Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 Even with an opening portlight, the head in our Island Packet 31 was a dark cave in need of more ventilation. Adding an ov...
A better way to connect snubbers and bridles to chain Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 Anchoring can be a straightforward procedure, but there are occasions that demand special strategies. And anchoring as a ...
Individuals of genius, and technical advances, laid the groundwork Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 Although fiberglass quickly overtook wood in the 1950s as the predominant material for building pleasure boa...
World-girdling pioneers inspired generations of sailors with their writing Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 I want to tell a story about Bernard Moitessier. It is not the famous one about him crossing his out...
A sinker and line makes a reliable messenger Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 When the genoa halyard aboard my father’s C&C 29 broke last summer, we thought we would have to remove the mast to replace the...
Rigidity and shade were just two of the benefits Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 As all things must, the old canvas dodger on my Westsail 32, Antares, came to the end of its life. We had sailed many a happy ...
The youngest circumnavigator advises focusing on the solution, not the problem Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 I’ve sailed solo around the world, 518 days of solo. It takes a mental fortitude that few can ap...
On long passages, it’s a campaign against attrition of gear and the electrical system Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 When I started sailing solo, I realized that I’d have to learn to deal with breakages if ...
In 1968, Britain’s The Sunday Times newspaper offered a trophy, named The Golden Globe, and £5,000 to the first person to sail singlehanded nonstop around the world. No starting date was specified, bu...
. . . and two pocket cruisers that followed Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 Most sailors, I think, look for evidence of evolution in yacht design, even when the rating rules of the day were written to stymie...
A beamy shoal-draft overnighter inspired by catboats Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 Traditional Watercraft of Largo, Florida, incorporated in the fall of 1979. Its founder, chief designer, and CEO was Rober...
Saying no to wings, foils, carbon fiber, and satcoms Issue 121: July/Aug 2018 I’m embarrassed to report that I’ve long been a bit sour on the America’s Cup, as it’s evolved. Embarrassed because boats ...
A coral atoll revealed the sea in its true colors Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 As a boy, I felt very lucky to grow up at Leigh-on-Sea, on the north shore of the Thames Estuary in Essex, England, where the...
Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Hurricane-tested water shoe I live in sandals and don’t often wear shoes. When I received the Bzees Wink Water Shoes to give them a test run, I dutifully wore them around for ...
Nor will SAEs mingle with metrics in the bottom of the toolbox Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Entropy, the natural process that leads to disorder, was well manifested in Second Star’s toolbox. Wrenches woul...
Good planning, instinct, careful observation, or luck? Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 In Good Old Boat there is an entertaining trope, or recurring narrative pattern, that shapes many Learning Experience st...
Solving a perplexing problem led to an explosive discovery Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 I dialed the number and waited through several rings. A man answered, and I told him I was the most recent owner of ...
Sailing other people’s boats is a good way to find the right size Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 The essence of cruising by sailboat is not about crossing vast oceans, but about living by sail. My husband, ...
The case for a well that encloses the tilted-up motor Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Sailboat auxiliary engines, inboard and outboard, have their strong points and weak points, friends and foes. My experien...
A ravenous rat unites a community while wreaking havoc on board Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 At our farewell party at the Club Náutico de Sevilla, Spain, I ate something I shouldn’t have, and on returning...
I want a boat with tan bark sailsTo sail the ocean blueAnd a bow sprit stoutAnd a good long keelTo keep her straight and trueAnd down below a cabin snugWith stove to cut the chillOf mornings up in Noo...
Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Most Good Old Boat readers sail in US and Canadian waters, but our humble magazine crosses other borders to reach a smattering of subscribers all around the globe. Here are a ...
Those nightmare threads that become unthreadable can be avoided Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Sailing is all about feel. And sometimes it’s through feel we get the first hint that things are about to go al...
The visually impaired rely on their other senses to keep them on course Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 We sailors often say that much more than sight is involved in sailing, that feeling is just as importan...
One boat’s discard is another’s chill deal Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 One day at the dock, my slip neighbor James asked me if I had a need for a refrigeration unit on my 1965 Alberg 35. “I had to replac...
. . . and similar, but older, full-keelers Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Analyzing the performance characteristics of the Cape Dory 30 Mk II presents a bit of a challenge. When you look at the boat from ab...
In the same tradition as its predecessor but roomier on deck and below Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 In 1963, Andrew Vavolotis left Boston Whaler and founded Cape Dory Yachts. Until its demise 28 years lat...
We learn to expect the unexpected, then tell the story Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Fifteen miles off the coast of Mexico on a sunny New Year’s Day, 2012, the autopilot steering, my wife, Windy, and I and...
